Japan Studies Review
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
JAPAN STUDIES REVIEW Volume Fourteen 2010 Interdisciplinary Studies of Modern Japan Steven Heine Editor John A. Tucker Book Review Editor Editorial Board Yumiko Hulvey, University of Florida John Maraldo, Emeritus, University of North Florida Matthew Marr, Florida International University Mark Ravina, Emory University Ann Wehmeyer, University of Florida Brian Woodall, Georgia Institute of Technology Copy and Production Jennylee Diaz Maria Sol Echarren Andrea Martinez Danielle Nelson JAPAN STUDIES REVIEW VOLUME FOURTEEN 2010 A publication of Florida International University and the Southern Japan Seminar CONTENTS Editor’s Introduction i Re: Subscriptions, Submissions and Comments iii ARTICLES Specters of Modernity: Japanese Horror Uncovers Anxiety for a Post-Bubble America Michael J. Blouin 3 Brewing Spirits, Brewing Songs: Saké, Haikai, and the Aestheticization of Suburban Space in Edo Period Itami W. Puck Brecher 17 Beauty and the Breck: The Psychology of Idealized Light Skin Vis-à-Vis Asian Women Ronald E. Hall 45 Jack London’s First Encounter with Japan: The Voyage of the Sophie Sutherland and his First Asian Writing Daniel A. Métraux 59 Varieties of Corporate Finance in Japanese Industrialization Yumiko Morii 75 Sweet Music from a Strange Country: Japanese Women Poets as “Other” Bern Mulvey 91 Bob Dylan’s Zen Garden: Cross-Cultural Currents in His Approach to Religiosity Steven Heine 113 FEATURED ESSAYS Heroes & Villains of the East: A Comparison of the Portrayal of the Japanese in Chinese and Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema in the 1970s and 1990s Ian Nathaniel Cohen 137 What Skills Should the Student Possess After Courses in Business Japanese? Yuki Matsuda 153 BOOK REVIEWS Soft Power and Its Perils: U.S. Cultural Policy in Early Postwar Japan and Permanent Dependency By Takeshi Matsuda Reviewed By Daniel A. Métraux 165 The Political Economy of Japan’s Low Fertility Ed. Frances McCall Rosenbluth Reviewed By John Hickman 167 Sword and Blossom: A British Officer’s Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman By Peter Pagnamento and Momoko Williams Reviewed by Daniel A. Métraux 170 The Gei of Geisha: Music, Identity and Meaning By Kelly M. Foreman Reviewed By Jan Bardsley 172 CONTRIBUTORS/EDITORS EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION Welcome to the fourteenth volume of the Japan Studies Review (JSR), an annual peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the joint efforts of the Institute for Asian Studies at Florida International University and the Southern Japan Seminar. JSR continues to be both an outlet for publications related to Southern Japan Seminar events and a journal that encourages submissions from a wide range of scholars in the field. This issue includes articles, essays, and book reviews covering a variety of topics in Japanese studies. Seven articles are included in this issue. “Specters of Modernity: Japanese Horror Uncovers Anxiety for a Post-Bubble America” by Michael J. Blouin scrutinizes the Japanese horror film genre and compares and contrasts it with American films, contending that both countries‟ postmodern national identities manifest themselves in popular cinema. The next article “Brewing Spirits, Brewing Songs: Saké, Haikai, and the Aestheticization of Suburban Space in Edo Period Itami” written by W. Puck Brecher challenges the belief that rural areas in Japan were culturally dependent on cities by using Itami, a small village which became a center for haikai poets through the use and production of Saké, as a contradictory example. Following this is Ronald E. Hall‟s “Beauty and the Breck: The Psychology of Idealized Light Skin Vis-à-Vis Asian Women,” which presents a theory for the Eurocentric ideal standards of beauty that can be found in Asian countries. On a different note is “Jack London‟s First Encounter with Japan: The Voyage of the Sophie Sutherland and his First Asian Writing,” written by Daniel A. Métraux. This article recaps London‟s trip to Japan in 1893 and how this inspired his first literary efforts. In “Varieties of Corporate Finance in Japanese Industrialization,” Yumiko Morii writes about the differences between pre- and post-war corporate finance of railroads, electric utilities, and the cotton-spinning industry, and how these financial practices varied from industry to industry. In “Sweet Music from a Strange Country: Japanese Women Poets as „Other,‟” Bern Mulvey examines the poetic works of Japanese women and disputes the conventional that their poetry is non-confrontational and indirect. The last article, “Bob Dylan‟s Zen Garden: Cross-Cultural Currents in His Approach to Religiosity” by Steven Heine focuses on Bob ii Dylan‟s first tour of Japan in 1978 where he was exposed to Zen Buddhist temples, and analyzes affinities between the philosophy of Zen and Dylan‟s multifaceted lyrics throughout various stages in his career. Included in this year‟s issue are two featured essays. The first is “Japanese Portrayal in Chinese Martial Arts Films: Heroes & Villains of The East: A Comparison of the Portrayal of the Japanese in Chinese and Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema in the 1970s and 1990s” by Ian Nathaniel Cohen, who examines the portrayal of the typical Chinese villain in Japanese Martial Arts films. “What Skills Should the Student Possess After Courses in Business Japanese?” by Yuki Matsuda discusses the proficiency skills in language and culture that a student demonstrates after taking a course in Japanese for business. Lastly, this volume includes four book reviews. Daniel A. Métraux reviews Takeshi Matsuda‟s in-depth examination of Japanese-American relations in Soft Power and Its Perils: U.S. Cultural Policy in Early Postwar Japan and Permanent Dependency. John Hickman reviews Frances McCall Rosenbluth‟s examination of low fertility rates in Japan in The Political Economy of Japan’s Low Fertility. Metrauz also reviews Peter Pagnamento and Momoko Williams‟ historically rich love story, Sword and Blossom: A British Officer’s Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman. Finally, Kelly M. Foreman‟s analysis of geisha in The Gei of Geisha: Music, Identity and Meaning is reviewed by Jan Bardsley. Steven Heine Steven Heine Re: Submissions, Subscriptions, and Comments iii Submissions for publication, whether articles, essays, or book reviews, should be made in both hard copy and electronic formats, preferably Word for Windows on a disk or CD (please inquire about other formats). The editor and members of the editorial board will referee all submissions. Annual subscriptions are $25.00 (US). Please send a check or money order payable to Florida International University to: c/o Steven Heine, Professor of Religious Studies and History Director of the Institute for Asian Studies Florida International University University Park Campus, DM 300 B Miami, FL 33199 Professor Heine‟s office number is 305-348-1914. Faxes should be sent to 305-348-6586 and emails sent to [email protected]. Visit our website at http://asian.fiu.edu/jsr versions of past volumes are available online. All comments and feedback on the publications appearing in Japan Studies Review are welcome. ISSN: 1550-0713 Articles SPECTERS OF MODERNITY: JAPANESE HORROR UNCOVERS ANXIETY FOR A POST-BUBBLE AMERICA Michael J. Blouin Michigan State University The fantastic, as an object and even mode of discourse, was closely affiliated with the instantiation of modernity in Japan, and that it has been mobilized to assert a mysteriousness if not exclusivity for modern Japan ever since…such a discourse might have shaped other modernities as well, which have gone unrecognized without the defamiliarization of modernity that an examination of Japan‟s case performs. Gerald Figal1 The supernatural has indeed become a “mode of discourse” in Japan. Japanese cinema, especially the horror genre of the late 20th century, is obsessed with spectral entities. In contrast, American cinema has never dealt with ghostliness in the same rigorous and self-identifying fashion. In order to understand modernity on a global scale, one might examine how the recent cultural exchange of Japanese horror films and their subsequent Hollywood re-makes represent a true “defamiliarization” of modernity for the former and yet another layer of repression by the latter. This article will look at how the containment of national identity in Japanese popular cinema often features ghostly forces that demonstrate the vacuous nature beneath the surface of this identity. At the turn of the 20th century, Hollywood was not prepared to face these very postmodern anxieties and thus these particular films were re-imagined (I would claim re-repressed) to insert an authentic origin for the haunting. I argue that these specific alterations uncover a shared cultural anxiety: the fear that beneath all of the ostentatious nationalism there is nothing but an empty lacuna. As multiple bubbles collapse and economic hegemony fades for the U.S., these Japanese horror films could potentially shape the way Americans deal with their own postmodern (ghostly) identity. 1 Gerald Figal, Civilization and Monsters (Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press, 1999). 4 MICHAEL BLOUIN First, one must analyze the importance of phantasms in Japanese cultural history. By doing so, the reader will begin to recognize the pattern of dealing with the uncanny that is unique to Japan. I will then focus on how these „J-horror‟ films have been re-imagined in the U.S. and why the Japanese mode of representing the uncanny (unlike, say, the Spanish modes of director Guillermo Del Toro) is translated and revised for audiences in the U.S. Finally, I will turn to the future and why, I believe, this exchange will continue to shape how Americans deal with their own repressed anxieties about national identity in the years ahead. The “Ghostly” Discourse Surrounding Japanese Identity Ghosts are, I believe, the most prominent trope in Japanese cinema. What is “dead” in the modern era for Japan returns not as a didactic reminder or a hypocritical impulse to be purged (as in American horror cinema). Instead, the “dead” eternally return as echoes of a transient selfhood which forever elude the stasis of cinematic frames.